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Thursday 30 May 2013

True liberation for people of Malaya lies in decolonisation of Sabah, Sarawak

Kotobian Tadau Tagazo Do Kaamatan

Selamat Pesta Kaamatan

Happy Kaamatan Festival



Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai

Salamat Ari Gawai

Selamat Gawai Dayak

Happy Gawai Dayak



True liberation for the people of Malaya will come when Sabah and Sarawak are no longer colonies and free of a Malaya masquerading as Malaysia.

There was no Referendum on Malaysia in Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei or Malaya.

There was only a Yes or No vote in Singapore on independence of the island through merger with Malaya through Malaysia, a new Federation, facilitated by Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei.

Cobbold Commission was not a Referendum.

Also, refer to the amendment on "Federation" in the codified Constitution of Malaya --- being passed off as the codified Constitution of Malaysia --- in violation of the Malaysia Agreement after the departure of Singapore in 1965. The amendment was unconstitutional, thereby unlawful and therefore illegal. The codified Constitution of Malaya is one of the many constitutional documents which would have made up the uncodified Constitution of Malaysia had there been a Referendum.

Read ...  http://fernandezjoe.blogspot.com/2013/05/parallels-between-east-timor-and-sabah.html

Tuesday 28 May 2013

India must avoid US-style proxy wars, world policing

by Joe Fernandez


India doesn't need to project itself as another United States in the world theatre and get involved in proxy wars and policing the world.

Already, the UN Security Council has collapsed because of the exclusion of India and the presence of the United Kingdom and France.

The Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia is India's cultural world.

The diaspora is a world of its own more involved with its host countries and with each other rather than with India although it will remain very much Indian.

India is better off focusing on its domestic economy, buying as little as possible including from China and selling a little more to the rest of the world even as it restructures itself to re-emerge as an Indian Union along the lines of the European Union.

Eventually, India will be best able to help the world by buying more from the small countries who are victims of proxy wars.

India can expect to be the world's largest economy by the year 2060.

China will eventually implode and divide along north south lines as Tibet, Yunnan, Sinkiang, Inner Mongolia and Manchuria break away with the collapse of the communist party.

Hong Kong will rule south China as a counterweight to north China based in Beijing and Shanghai.

Pakistan will break-up into Baluchistan, Sindh, Punjab, the FATA, and the NWFP, and Azad Kashmir and the northern areas will reunite with Jammu Kashmir in the Indian Union.

The NWFP will make common cause with south Afghanistan as north Afghanistan breaks away into a separate state which will seek greater ties with central Asia.

Baluchistan in Pakistan and Iran will come together.

The Kurdish regions of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria will come together as a nation in its own right.

Turkey will also lose its Armenian region.

Monday 27 May 2013

Star has bright future because of Malaysia Agreement


https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/05/28/jeffreys-star-crumbling/

Jeffrey’s STAR crumbling?


| May 28, 2013 

Political observers claim STAR was on the back foot in the media propaganda wars adding that "discipline was low and decisions not always right"

When I initially wrote quite some time ago that Star -- the way that United Borneo Front was going -- could get only one parliamentary seat and two state seats at the most, party leaders and members were very angry with me, and badmouthed me all over the place.

In that sense, they were competing with Sapp which I predicted would get zero seats since it was an irrelevant party. Party leaders wanted to sue me but, on second thoughts, decided against it since I was "a useless piece of shit", according to them. That makes Sapp leaders useful pieces of shit. To add insult to injury, it (Sapp) refused to apologize to the people of Sabah for 1994.

Why should Jeffrey be surprised by GE13, unless he got carried away by his own bullshit!

Jeffrey, for some reason, didn't allow party leaders to come out from his shadow. That was a cardinal sin. He was also more concerned about not souring relations with other parties in the Opposition although they had no qualms about tearing into Star at every opportunity they could get. Also, the voters were misled by Pakatan Rakyat propaganda that Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak should have a two party/coalition system and that Star was sponsored by the Barisan Nasional (BN) to split Opposition votes. 

If anyone wants to leave Star because of GE13, it would be a blessing in disguise. There are many BN rejects in the party. There's a lot of time to quarrel before the Sarawak state election. The party needs those who are ideologically committed.

Star has a bright future in Sabah and Sarawak because of the Malaysia Agreement.

Star . . . the Perfect Choice . . . kini, dulu dan selamanya

Read the rest here ...

Sunday 26 May 2013

Amnesty the way forward to end statelessness in Malaysia

Dear Joe,

One ought to remain focussed on only those who were born in Malaysia and made stateless for political reasons. This was not envisaged by the Reid Commission.  My sister’s ward about whom I wrote earlier is a classic example of a person who was denied education, health services, the right to seek employment and the life chances normal citizens have.

The State failed her.

The Politicians failed her.

Society failed her and she should not have to wait another 5 years to receive justice.

She cannot waste away another five years for the BN government to give her the dignity and rights she is entitled to as a human being.

This is the reason we assisted Waythamoorthy to file the claim in the UK court for people like this young lady.

She needs to be compensated for the injustice inflicted upon her under the universal principal of natural justice for having deprived her basic human rights by the BN government in defiance of the Reid Commission’s recommendations. Alternatively, as a stateless person, as deemed by the UMNO-dominated BN government, she like others in similar situation like her is entitled to be referred to the UNCHR under its Special Humanitarian programme entitled to international identification papers that are issued those found to be stateless.

In any case the Deputy Minister Waythamoorthy should grant a reasonably good quantum of monetary compensation, a few million ringgit per person,  for each one those born in Malaysia, but was denied their human rights in similar vein to the claim he has lodged in the UK courts for a few trillion dollars as compensation for individuals like this lady.

The good Deputy Minister is in error when he says there is no conflict of interest for him to hold concurrently two positions as Chairman of HINDRAF as well as being a Deputy Minister in the BN government. These positions are  adversarial to each other, HINDRAF as a community based NGO advocating for the rights of the displaced ex estate workers while at the same time being a Deputy Minister promulgating regulatory programmes with statutory power impinging on the community.

His denial that there is no conflict of interest (Sunday Times , 27 May) in holding on to these two conflicting position is a flawed reasoning and can never be tenable in a free society. It may work in some authoritarian society but not in Malaysia.

Paul Low of TI in accepting the appointment as a Minister saw this conflict and promptly resigned from TI.

The Indian community members too would resist such a dual role.

HINDRAF is NOT a political party like MIC or MCA, but an NGO that advocates for its rights from the State of which Waythamoorthy is the DEPUTY MINISTER. The dual role, conflicting with each other, could lead to social control by stealth by the State, and erode the rights of the community.

As for Anwar, we have to give him the benefit of doubt. It is well known that human beings develop a stronger inherent value each time the individual faces crisis, which leads the mind to a state of catharsis based on the experience. I honestly think Anwar has altered his previously entrenched UMNO centric values for the betterment of the Malaysian society

Regards

Robert K Chelliah


From:
paramanvs@yahoo.com.sg

Yes I agree with you on this.

Many have not understood the reason why Hindraf has stated the process of getting the poor Indians their legitimate documents eg MyKads, Birth Certificates etc is a process that will go on for 5 years.

This does not mean that an application is going to take 5 years to process.

In fact a family in Penang I believe was the first successful family under Hindraf to obtain all their IDs. A blue MyKad with 8 Birth certs given to the whole family within 2 weeks of the recent GE.

If it was stated within 100 days or so what will happen to those who walk in after 100 days?

The 5 years was asked for so that Hindraf could go out into all estates etc and look for any Indians who are stateless.

Anwar had mischievously said all those pending applications will be resolved within 100 days. Then he said 300k. But the fact remains that till date his Election Manifesto does not include the issue of statelessness that Surendran has been claiming to fight for.

I asked Nurul myself personally in our HINDRAF-PR meetings, how is PR going to solve the statelessness issue within 100 days knowing the hurdles that need to be overcome especially the racist BTN bureaucracy.

She had no answer.

Then we told her our Blueprint spells out the solution and it states 5 years to do so. This was one of the reasons we never trusted PR's intentions in solving the critical Indian problems.

On Feb 15, malaysiakini reported that Anwar will implement the Hindraf Blueprint in 100 days http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/221444.

He went on to state that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will include 5 key issues in the PR Election Manifesto which it had “missed out”.

1)    Resolving the ‘long standing issue of stateless people’ in Malaysia, without excluding Indians, in the first 100 days of Pakatan’s administration.

2)    Technical training and job opportunities for school leavers, stressing the major beneficiaries to be the Indian community.

3)    Ensuring all Tamil schools will be fully funded and infrastructure comparable to the national educational standards.

4)    A government National Housing Board to build affordable homes that includes focus on helping build freehold homes for ex estate workers around the country.

5)    The setting up of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

But till date if you were to check the PR Election manifesto website which was last updated April 15 2013 but also includes news articles dated May 26 2013, it does not have any of the 5 issues that Anwar claimed it would include. http://www.pakatanrakyat.my/files/ENG-Manifesto-BOOK.pdf

This clearly proved that Anwar lied.


Paraman Subramaniam

Note to Dr Paraman: Nurul, I was told, agrees with the Hindraf Makkal Sakthi Blueprint but could not say so openly.







When Anwar Ibrahim was DPM, he may have been part of the problem -- he obviously kept quiet -- rather than being part of the solution. Now that he's in the Opposition, he's self-servingly singing a different tune for reasons of political expediency. We have to give him the benefit of the doubt instead of clobbering him on the head for his unsavoury past.

Stateless should not apply to those who came by the backdoor into Sabah since there's no record of them leaving their country. Those who came by the backdoor should leave by the backdoor and return legally if they have a job in Sabah. It's more complicated if they have children in Sabah.

This is a problem deliberately created by Putrajaya to steal the country from the Orang Asal through foreigners on the electoral rolls who are being used to marginalize and disenfranchise them (Orang Asal).

We should call a spade, a spade.

That's the only way to solve the problem.

It's no point pussyfooting around the issue or indulging in outright lies, disinformation, rhetoric and polemics like Mahathir who should in fact be hanged for High Treason.

Ironically, both Mahathir (Malayalee) and Anwar (Tamil) are of Indian origin.

There may be those who entered Sabah legally and are now stateless after having overstayed ten years or more. The problems of these people have to be resolved in negotiations between Malaysia, Sabah and their home countries. Perhaps we can take only some of them and that too as permanent residents only for a start, not as citizens. We have to await the recommendations of the Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Star should pursue these matters with Deputy Minister Senator-designate P. Waythamoorthy of the Prime Minister's Department.

The media can play a role. Unfortunately, it's run by incompetent nincompoops.

Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai. Salamat Ari Gawai. Selamat Hari Gawai. Happy Gawai. Kotobian Tadau Do Kaamatan. Selamat Pesta Kaamatan. Happy Kaamatan Festival.

Sent by DiGi from my BlackBerry® Smartphone



Joe, everyone can make promises which maybe more difficult to implement. Why didn't Anwar did it when he was DPM, I wonder?

As for stateless people, they should be helped, I strongly agree but an all out amnesty anyone can promise as PR did, but what happen if there are administrative and legal problems as encountered as In Sabah when a "new population" is mobilized to become a political force which takes away the right from the indigenous people? Is Sabah taken over by UMNO using Project IC from PBS led Government, as accused by local politicians, a healthy precedence for Malaysia in the long term?

A simple solution may not be the answer to people who left their mother land for Malaysia for every reasons known. My view is that we should leave the problem for the relevant Department in the Civil Service in the Administration and the Judiciary to deal with these cases. My own daughter was made "stateless" by certain inept people in the Administration but after we took the Government to the Court they reinstated her citizenship. So I understood very well the problems faced by "stateless people but they go back to the Law for due process, long and tedious and cost money but this is where politicians can help by making sure inept civil servants to do their jobs properly not making citizenship easy as in the PTI in Sabah nor relieved people of their Citizenship so easily as in my daughter case.

Thank you for your concern which by the way is also our STAR concern, a pun maybe, but STAR will treat citizenship as a life and death issue. No credible democratic nation will make any human "stateless" nor agree to any easy short cut to Maykads. This should be our joint concern and our stand to save Malaysia from future anarchy.

Happy Gawai to all

 

Robert,

To solve the stateless problem, it would be necessary for the Government to declare an Amnesty.

Alternatively, the Director General of the National Registration Department can exercise his prerogative and discretionary powers to solve the problem of the stateless on a case by case basis. That would take forever.

I dealt with the DG in Putrajaya once by letter not so long ago and obtained MyKads for two of my Orang Asal students who had procedural defects in their application. The DG instructed his Kota Kinabalu office two weeks later to phone the father of the students concerned and issue them the MyKads. The MyKads were issued within a month.

In another case, I dealt with the DG of the Insolvency Dept in Putrajaya and secured a discharge for someone who had been bankrupt for 14 years.

In another case, I even wrote to then Finance Minister Tunku Razaleigh Hamzah from Kuching, cc to Bank Negara, after the United Asian Bank in Kuala Lumpur failed to send me a set of new cheque books even two months after having requested them. Needless to say, Bank Negara took prompt action and I received not one but two sets of cheque books.

Back in KL the bank tried to be funny with me when I applied for a small overdraft for my cash flow needs. They even had the cheek to suggest that I could complain to Razaleigh again since they had no intention of approving my application. They referred to my earlier complaint about the cheque books.

I wrote the story for the New Sunday Times. There are no prizes for guessing that I quickly secured the overdraft facilities which had been denied.

Generally, I find the Government machinery efficient especially as it moves towards a paperless administration. The civil servants I encountered took pride in their work. Perhaps it's because I expect efficiency. Serving in the Government, albeit briefly for two years, also gave me an inkling of how the civil service functions.

In Sarawak, the civil service was super efficient even way back in the 1980s when we had no computers. I have many issues with the Sarawak Government but I wouldn't rate inefficiency among them.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pledged to solve the stateless problem within 100 days of taking office.

This could only be done by declaring an Amnesty which would recognize the stateless as citizens by operation of law.

I believe Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim would have been able to make good his pledge. There's no reason for him to make an empty promise.

The issue with the stateless is that they either don't have birth certificates, and if they do, their parents probably don't have their documents in order.

In the estates, as in the rural areas, people are not particular about getting personal documents especially if they are not going to venture out from their traditional surroundings. This is why the Penan as well in the jungles of Sarawak are stateless. Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud once advised the Penan to apply for permanent residence as a first step. Can you imagine anything more humiliating than this? But that's bureaucracy at work.

The Penan would need an Amnesty as well.

It's not possible to declare Amnesty just for the Indians among the stateless in Malaya.

There should be only one Amnesty on the stateless and to cover the whole of Malaysia. This would take care of not only the Indians in Malaya but also the Penan in Sarawak, the Bajau Laut in Sabah and others elsewhere in the country.

Waytha told the media in recent days that he has a mechanism to solve the problem of statelessness among the Indians in Malaya.

I can't imagine any mechanism other than what I have outlined above.

Waytha should work with the Law Minister, Nancy Shukri, and the Attorney General on the Amnesty once the Prime Minister gives his consent.


Joe Fernandez



Sir
Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim,

Your good wishes for the discriminated Indians are most welcome.  https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/05/26/tunku-aziz-waytha-the-perfect-choice/

Pray tell me how long it would take, as an administrative procedure, to restore the citizenship to the 380,000 or so stateless Malaysian born Indians. Certainly it would not take 5 years as intimated by the good Deputy Minister. It should take no longer than 6 months or less for the identification, documentation and issuance of their National Registration Identification Cards (NRIC) and the monetary compensation payable to each one of them, akin to the claim lodged in the UK High Court by Mr. Waythamoorthy, now a Honourable Deputy Minister of the Malaysian Government for the suffering inflicted by this unjust institutionalised and legislated discrimination.

Secondly, Sir, pray tell me what would be the quantum of compensation payable to each one of them, in terms of actual cash and resettlement benefits,  as compensation by the UMNO dominated BN government for having denied them their basic life skills such as education, their civil liberties, their dignity, their life opportunities under the universal principle of natural justice, as an ideal promoted by HINDRAF, that every other Malaysians are entitled to. These stateless Indians were subjected to slave-like conditions for their survival in their own country of birth. They were dehumanised, denied of their human dignity and the right to all that any human being is entitled to in a civilised country. Would any one deny  them the a fair compensation that would be at least can be quantified at a minimum of 5 million Ringgit to each one of them, similar to the claim lodged in the UK High Court by the Honourable Deputy Minister Waythamoorthy, on behalf of these Malaysian born people of Indian ethnicity.


We wait to see how soon these stateless individuals would be given a lifeline and paid a proper compensation either by the Malaysian government or the claims submitted by the Deputy Minister at the UK court. Your support to their course, as an eminent person, would be most welcome by these stateless souls.

Robert K Chelliah


Saturday 25 May 2013

Najib should share Federal Cabinet, Government with Opposition

by Joe Fernandez

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Assuming that the differences between the Form 14 vote count and the post-Form 14 vote recount allegedly with the addition of unexplained postal votes or other boxes or spolit votes added/good votes deemed spoilt do not alter the 13th General Election result in terms of seat distribution, the fact still remains that the Opposition won the popular vote by 53 per cent, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) won the popular vote by 51 per cent while Barisan Nasional (BN) obtained only 47 per cent of the popular vote despite winning 133 seats in Parliament under the now infamous First Past the Post System.

We haven't even got into the nitty gritty details of the race for the Perak and Terengganu state assemblies yet. Here, BN won by a three seat and two seat margin respectively.

BN claims it won the GE. Patently, it has no moral right to govern, only the legal right.

PR claims it won the GE since the majority of the people voted for it. It rightly claims the moral, if not the legal, right to govern.

But how is it going to rule with just 89 seats in the 222 seat Parliament? The Government will fall on a no confidence motion on the very first day that Parliament convenes.

Again, we assume here that the King will call upon a member of Parliament -- the PR leader in the August House -- who does not command the confidence of the majority, to be sworn in as Prime Minister in defiance of the Federal Constitution.

It's not good enough PR claiming and complaining to the King that BN stole 27 parliamentary seats from it, 19 from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) alone and the rest from Dap and Pas. Both Dap and Pas have accepted the GE13 results. They are willing to sacrifice the eight seats collectively "stolen" from them, put it down to experience, and move on.

The right forum to complain about the 27 "stolen" seats is the Election Court. Rhetoric and polemics, entertaining as they are, will get us nowhere in the end. 

Nevertheless, we are in unchartered territory, if only because the public perception is that PR won GE13.

Hence, only fair and politically correct solutions to the impasse is for the BN to share Federal Cabinet and politically-appointed Government positions with the Opposition including Star without requiring the Opposition to join the BN, without forming a coalition Government or without forming a National Unity Government.

The onus is on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

He can in fact considerably strengthen his own shaky position by sharing the Federal Cabinet and Government positions with the Opposition.

It will strengthen his Faction's position in Umno in preparation for:

(1) BN emerging as a registered political party: and

(2) the 14th GE which must be held by 2018 at the latest.

Both BN and PR must concede defeat and congratulate the other side on what they have achieved on 505.

In Parliament, the BN and the Opposition should continue to sit across from each other.

The Federal Cabinet can sit together to one side, keeping in mind the Doctrine of Separation of Powers.

All election petitions must be withdrawn and the Blackout 505 rallies brought to an end. Let's face it! There were no blackouts like during the Sibu by-election when BN tried to cheat its way to victory by adding unexplained postal votes.

Umno must call off its legions of moneybags who are even now making frantic attempts to woo PR legislators to the BN with desperate promises of cash, positions, projects and even more cash. Knowing the BN, and given past experience, most of these promises will not be kept.

The power-sharing formula at the Federal level should be duplicated in Perak and Terengganu.

In all other states, the status quo should remain.

The people should reject any political party/coalition which tries to thrust itself on them. Umno/BN is a shameless example. So is PR in Borneo. Politicians should wait to be called upon by the people to serve them.

Friday 24 May 2013

Najib should show who the boss is in no uncertain terms

by Joe Fernandez

COMMENT It’s interesting that MIC President Palanivel should claim that his party will insist that an Indian Affairs Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department be placed under his party and not Hindraf Makkal Sakthi as envisaged under a recent Barisan Nasional (BN) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Hindraf Malaysia Association (Himas). Such bravado from a man who can’t even stand up to the busybody Samy Vellu, his predecessor who shamelessly offered himself as a winnable candidate for the recent 13th General Election on May 5.

The lame duck Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) leader has no business questioning the prerogative and discretionary powers of the Prime Minister who has rightly recognised that the present Government in Putrajaya comprises Umno, the Hindraf movement and the BN component parties in Sabah and Sarawak.

The rest – MIC, MCA, Gerakan and PPP – are irrelevant.

Even the ostensibly multiracial but Chinese dominated and led Sarawak United People’s Party (Supp) has become irrelevant since the Sarawak state election of 2009 and the same fate awaits Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), United PasokMomogun KadazanDusunMurut Organisation (Upko) and the Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS). The Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) left BN on 17 Sept, 2008 in a bid to reinvent itself after PBS rejoined BN but was wiped out during the recent 13th General Election on May 5 when it was rebuffed by the Orang Asal and the Chinese.

There’s a case here for suspending MIC’s membership in the BN over the party’s open defiance of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and bringing shame in public to him and the coalition he heads. Najib should put his foot down and show who the boss is in no uncertain terms. BN should issue a show cause letter to MIC.

The suspension will also allow the Indian Progressive Federation (IPF) and Kimma, the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress, Malaysia Makkal Sakthi Party, and other Indian-based political parties to join the ruling coalition. So far, their bid to join the BN has been stymied by the MIC veto power.

Alternatively, there’s a case for every party in BN to open up to all races and thereby the coalition can re-invent itself to match Pakatan Rakyat, the Opposition Coalition. BN is at the moment being referred to as Barisan NAZIonal and not without reasons either as it’s driven by the sick ketuanan Melayu (Malay political supremacy and dominance) mindset which is a combination of Apartheid, Nazism, Fascism, Political Islam, and the evil caste system of ancient India.

The BN rules call for unanimity on any application by a political party to join the coalition. Expulsion from the BN however only needs a simply majority.

If Palanivel wants an Indian Unit, he can start one on his own in MIC to collect the crumbs from Umno and distribute fairly among his party leaders and members.  At the moment, MIC doesn’t distribute these crumbs fairly. He should also distribute some of the crumbs to the Malays and Orang Asli who voted for his party members in the recent GE.

Again, it’s not the done thing to eye the Unit which is being set up under the BN-Hindraf Makkal Sakthi Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) forged on the eve of GE13.

Also, there remains the delicate question of the Indians not voting for the MIC during GE13 as during GE12.

MIC candidates who won their seats managed the feat with the help of the Malay-speaking  communities in Malaya – Bugis, Javanese, Minang, Acehnese, Arab Muslim, Indian Muslim and others -- and Orang Asli voters.

Where MIC lost, even Malay and Orang Asli votes were not sufficient to save them.

So, it’s a bit of a mystery why MIC wants to claim ownership of the Indian Unit and the Indian Nation in Malaysia.

The only Indians the MIC represents are the party leaders themselves in collecting the crumbs from Umno’s table after the Umnoputras have eaten more than a fair share of their fill fro the spoils of office, vomited, shat and farted.

This comes as no surprise.

MIC was originally set up, modeled on the Congress Party of India, to fight for the independence of India from British colonial rule.

Subsequently, upon British advice, both MIC and the Malayan Chinese Party (MCA) became colonial tools to carry out Resident-General Frank Swettenham’s Policy towards the Malay-speaking squatters settled on the former Thai territory in the southern half of the Kra Peninsula (i.e. Malaya): “protecting the Malays from themselves”. In the process, the MIC and MCA could ensure that the vested interests among them could protect themselves as well.

MIC and MCA were never about the people.

Hence, the rise of Dap from the PAP in Malaya and some 50 years later, the emergence of Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, both to give voice to the ordinary man in the street. Had Dap accommodated the Indians, there would have been no need for Hindraf. But the Dap was more obsessed with forming a Malay-Chinese Federal Government which would mean “to hell with the Indians, the Orang Asal and others”. So, it’s no wonder that the Pakatan Rakyat failed to seize the reins of power in Putrajaya. The popular vote failed to give it a majority of the seats in Parliament as the First Past the Post System does not take into account the former and instead roots for “the winner takes all, the loser loses all”. Here we assume that there were no differences that would alter the result based on the tally of votes as represented by Form 14 and the recount of these votes after Form 14.

Back to Swettenham, it was his belief that the Malay (generally meaning the elite) was an arrogant creature who would not hesitate to harm another even if he suffered far greater damage in the process. It was Swettenham’s belief that became British colonial policy in Malaya: “protect the Malay from himself”.

MIC and MCA also became key tools, along with Umno, to protect British interests in Malaya after the departure of the colonialists in 1957.

The failure of Umno, as in the case of MIC and MCA, has seen the rise of Pas and the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

MIC will never be able to do for the Indians what Hindraf can do as an ad hoc apolitical people’s human rights movement which brought together 30 over Indian-based NGOs and organisations in a coalition of the willing.

Hindraf Makkal Sakthi chairman P. Waythamoorthy, a human rights advocate and lawyer, is the right person to head the Indian Unit. Let’s give the devil his due!

Under the MOU with Hindraf for example, the Umno Government has pledged not to fiddle with the marks of Indian students, a criminal practice designed to deny them places in local universities. They have also pledged to stop withdrawing the recognition of foreign universities which have "too many Indian students from Malaysia". MIC has failed the Indians on both counts for fear of invoking the wrath of the Malay voters and hence losing their seats.

It’s well known that the Umno Government fiddles with public examination marks under state secrecy laws to hand out free degrees to the undeserving even in critical disciplines.  Even the deserving members of the Malay-speaking communities lose out just as the non-Malays.

This is a policy influenced by Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma.

The book advocated the self-serving theory that the Malays, being inbred for one, were genetically inferior and could not cope with the competition posed by others.

The Malay-speaking communities admittedly appear to have more than their fair share of certain cultural practices like incest and inbreeding.

But that’s no reason not to embrace the concept of the Brightest and Best irrespective of race, religion and gender leading us all. Any other policy would lead to the further moronification of the morons and the moronification of the Brightest and the Best.

The Umnoputras have had their day since 13 May, 1969 under the guise of looking out for the Malay-speaking communities. They should take heed of the voices being heard at the Blackout 505 rallies instead of letting loose their moneybags to woo defectors from the Pakatan Rakyat and thereby generate even more turmoil in the streets.

Umno Blogger thanks Air Biman for making 5/5 happen

by Sarawak Report

Unlike PR opposition figures, who are getting arrested for questioning the conduct of the 5/5 election on behalf of the majority of the electorate, UMNO bloggers are still enjoying freedom of speech.
However, judging from what some have been saying, Najib may need to shut them up too!

Consider the Tweets put out by one of the known henchmen of former youth leader and recently appointed Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin in past days.

Dax Muhamad, we understand, spent much of the election period in Bangladesh, despite his passionate support of UMNO for whom he blogs.

Read the rest of the rest here . . .

Thursday 23 May 2013

Sedition Act cannot be used by illegitimate or any Government

by Joe Fernandez

COMMENT We are often reminded that the Court is not about the truth or justice but the law.

Bad laws are unconstitutional, thereby unlawful and therefore illegal. Bad laws are a nullity, invalid and void from the very beginning i.e. as if they never existed.

The Sedition Act is inherently flawed even if it’s not silent on the premise that the first past the post system must be subject to the popular vote. The National Fatwa Council’s take on illegal demonstrations and occupation of the streets is unconstitutional, thereby unlawful, and therefore illegal.
http://my.news.yahoo.com/haram-to-topple-government-through-violence-repeats-fatwa-092142721.html

A legitimate Government must not only have and/or have the support of the majority in Parliament; it must have the popular vote. The first past the post system must be read in a holistic manner. We cannot allow the "the winner takes all and the loser loses all" mindset to ride roughshod over us and deprive us of the democracy which is our birthright.

We haven't even gone into the issue of gerrymandering of the electoral boundaries, illegal immigrants and other foreigners on the electoral rolls, electoral fraud and the complicity of the Election Commission, the National Registration Department, the entire machinery of the civil service and the Court.

Again, as much as the majority in Parliament -- provided it has the popular -- the minority, the losing voices under the first past the post system, have a right to be heard in Parliament.

This is what democracy is all about.

No one should be accused of trying to bring down an illegitimate Government. In fact, it's the sacred duty of their people to regain their sovereignty which has been usurped by a handful of people heading a so-called Government.

The BN should agree to enter into an Interim Government with the Opposition to ensure free and fair elections or the people are left with no alternative but to form a Revolutionary Government.

The street protests and occupation are a legitimate form of expression by the people when the so-called Government refuses to enter into a dialogue on forging ways to take the nation forward in matters of politics, the Government and nation-building.

Law goes beyond the statute books, common law, the Constitution, jurisprudence and history to what has always existed.

Law exists and it's for the Court to find the law, notwithstanding our adversarial system of justice, and over and above what has been looked for and pointed out to the Court by lawyers.

Having said that, it has been noted that it has always been somewhat of a mystery as to exactly what skills lawyers bring to their profession.

It's time as well that the people took back the Court process from the Court and lawyers.

Wednesday 22 May 2013

The Rural-Urban Divide in Malaysia’s General Election

by PoliTweet.org

ANALYSIS 108 out of 133 seats won by Barisan Nasional (BN) came from rural seats. 72 out of 89 seats won by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) came from urban and semi-urban seats.
While it is true that PR won every Chinese-majority seat, there are only 30 Chinese-majority seats in the country. That leaves at least 59 seats won with the support of other races.

When comparing Malay-majority seats, PR won more seats than BN in both semi-urban and urban categories. A Malay-majority seat cannot be seen as a guaranteed victory for BN.

In terms of the popular vote, BN obtained 57% of the popular vote in rural seats, 47% of the popular vote in semi-urban seats, and 36% of the popular vote in urban seats. Looking at the winning majorities of individual seats, the probability of BN regaining urban seats is low. This gap in the popular vote is illustrated in the infographics at the end of this post.

That is the picture of the political urban-rural divide. BN represents the rural majority and can retain power with rural and semi-urban seats alone. This election highlighted PR’s weak areas which are rural seats, Bumiputra Sabah majority and Bumiputra Sarawak majority seats.

Read the rest here . . .



Tuesday 21 May 2013

BILA, MENGAPA DAN BAGAIMANA KRISTIAN MENGGUNAKAN KATA ‘ALLAH’

Pengenalan dan Latarbelakang 

Tujuan dokumen ini adalah untuk menjelaskan secara ringkas kepada orang-orang Kristian yang tidak faham bila, kenapa dan bagaimana Gereja-gereja di Malaysia menggunakan kata ‘Allah’. Ia juga untuk orang Kristian yang keliru tentang bagaimana harus bertindak apabila berhadapan dengan orang bukan Islam yang jahil tentang penggunaan kata ‘Allah’ dalam agama Kristian. 

Terdapat banyak (tidak tepat) kenyataan bukan Kristian yang mendakwa bahawa kita tidak boleh menggunakan kata ‘Allah’ kerana ia adalah istilah eksklusif untuk agama Islam yang merujuk kepada Tuhan Islam dan hanya boleh digunakan oleh orang Islam. Ia merupakan masalah pelik di Malaysia kerana di negara-negara Islam yang lain , di negara Arab – penganut Kristian berbahasa Arab menggunakan kata ‘Allah’. 

Umat Kristian sendiri kadang-kadang jahil kecuali jika kita berdoa dalam Bahasa Malaysia, kita berdoa kepada 'Allah' dalam bahasa kita sendiri. Sebagai contoh, dalam Bahasa Inggeris, kita tidak menggunakan kata ‘Allah’. 

Walau bagaimanapun, lebih 60% daripada Kristian di Malaysia hanya bercakap dalam Bahasa Malaysia, dan perkataan yang digunakan untuk Tuhan di dalam kitab Bahasa Malaysia (Al-Kitab) sejak terjemahan pada tahun 1731, adalah 'Allah'. Kata ini digunakan oleh Bumiputera Kristian yang menggunakan Bahasa Malaysia sebagai bahasa pengantara mereka terutama di Sabah, Sarawak, Semenanjung Malaysia, dan masyarakat Baba di Melaka 

Sejarah Makna dan Penggunaan 

1. Kata 'Allah' adalah istilah yang digunakan bagi Tuhan yang tertinggi di antara tuhan-tuhan, sebelum wahyu Islam. The Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. H.A.R. Gibb & J. H. Kramer dan The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, ed. John L. Esposito, menyokong dan mengesahkan pernyataan ini. 

2. Dari segi sejarah, penganut Kristian berbahasa Melayu di Asia Tenggara telah menggunakan 'Allah' untuk merujuk kepada Tuhan. Buktinya adalah seperti berikut: 

• Wujudnya Kitab salat as sawai atau Katekismus Kristian di dalam Bahasa Melayu telah ditulis pada tahun 1514 dan diterbitkan sekitar 1545, 

• Telah ada versi cetakan Injil Matius di dalam Bahasa Melayu oleh A.C. Ruyl pada tahun 1629, 

• Kamus Melayu-Latin telah dicetak di Roma pada tahun 1631 (Dictionarium The Malaicum-Latinum dan Latinum - Malaicum) 

• Terjemahan Kitab Kejadian oleh D. Brouwerius (1662), 

• Terjemahan M. Leijdecker (1733), 

• Terjemahan H.C. Klinkert (1879), 
• Terjemahan W.A. Bode (1938), dan 

• Pada tahun 1731-1733, telah wujud Al-Kitab Bahasa Melayu lengkap mengandungi kata ‘Allah’ iaitu terjemahan untuk ‘God’. 

3. Oleh itu, sejak awal lagi, kata ‘Allah' telah digunakan dalam liturgi, doa-doa dan ibadat orang-orang Kristian yang bertutur dalam Bahasa Malaysia. Tetapi selama berabad-abad itu, tidak ada bantahan atau kegemparan mengenai penggunaan kata 'Allah'.  

Bahasa 

Bantahan terhadap penggunaan kata 'Allah' kebanyakannya berpunca dari wacana politik, atau di kalangan mereka yang membantah dengan tuduhan bahawa penterjemahan dan penggunaan kata ‘Allah’ baru sahaja berlaku. Ini tidak benar kerana sebab-sebab berikut: 

1. Dalam bahasa-bahasa Semitik, kata 'Allah' telah digunakan secara meluas di Timur Tengah sejak abad ke-5 SM, sehingga masa perkembangan Islam dan penyebaran Bahasa Arab pada abad ke-7 M. 

2. Penterjemahan Al-Kitab bukan menterjemah dari Bahasa Inggeris tetapi berdasarkan teks-teks dari Al-Kitab Ibrani dan teks Yunani. Dalam Bahasa Ibrani, kata 'Allah' mempunyai bentuk akar yang sama seperti Bahasa Arab. Jadi, apabila kata 'Allah' pertama kali diterjemahkan ke dalam Bahasa Malaysia, para penterjemah sebenarnya mengikut penggunaan Bahasa Arab Kristian dan mengekalkan perkataan 'Allah'. 

3. Seperti yang dinyatakan sebelum ini, kata 'Allah' digunakan sebelum kedatangan Islam. Ia bukan ciptaan umat Islam dan kewujudannya tidak bermula di dalam Al-Quran. 

Haruskah Kristian Menggantikan kata ‘Allah’ dengan ‘Tuhan’? 

Ini tidak mungkin atas sebab-sebab berikut : 

1. Dalam Bahasa Melayu, 'Allah' bermakna ‘Tuhan’ dan ‘Tuhan’ bermaksud ‘Lord’. Ini jelas apabila kita membaca Al-Kitab, ‘Allah’ dan ‘Tuhan’ digunakan di dalam Al-Kitab, dan kedua-duanya mempunyai konotasi yang berbeza. Oleh itu 'Allah' tidak boleh digantikan dengan 'Tuhan’. 

2. Kata Tuhan telah digunakan untuk Yesus Kristus iaitu Tuhan Yesus. Sekiranya Kristian menggantikan kata 'Allah' untuk Tuhan, ia menimbulkan banyak kekeliruan dan tidak keruan yang merujuk kepada Tuhan dan Yesus 
kerana: 

• Makna ‘Allah’ dan Tuhan adalah berbeza. 

• Ini sangat jelas melalui satu contoh sahaja. Di dalam Yesaya, Bab 41 dan Ayat 13; 43:3 dan 51:51. “For I am the LORD, your GOD...” diterjemahkan sebagai “Akulah Tuhan, Allah kamu...”(ALKITAB : Berita Baik. 2001. Edisi Kedua. Terbitan The Bible Society of Malaysia). 

• Ia akan mewujudkan situasi tidak masuk akal jika orang Kristian perlu menterjemahkan frasa alkitabiah 'Lord God’ sebagai Tuhan Tuhan. Pengulangan kata Tuhan Tuhan menunjukkan jamak di dalam Bahasa Malaysia, ia seolah-olah memperlihatkan bahawa agama Kristian percaya akan banyak tuhan, ini adalah sesuatu yang tidak boleh diterima. 

• Umat Kristian berbahasa Malaysia tidak akan dapat mengesahkan ketuhanan Yesus Kristus dan mengajar doktrin Tritunggal kerana dua perkataan ini adalah kata-kata asas  

Kesan-kesan Larangan Kata ‘Allah’ 

1. Dinafikan untuk menggunakan kata ‘Allah’ adalah melanggar hak perlembagaan kebebasan beragama rakyat Malaysia di bawah Perlembagaan Persekutuan. Perkara 11 Perlembagaan Persekutuan melindungi hak setiap rakyat Malaysia untuk menganut agama dan amalan pilihan masing-masing. Perkara 11 (3) jelas memperuntukkan bahawa setiap kumpulan agama mempunyai hak untuk mengurus hal ehwal agama mereka sendiri. 

2. Pada tahun 2011, Mahkamah Tinggi memberikan penghakiman yang membenarkan Gereja Katolik menggunakan perkataan 'Allah'. Kerajaan (semua rakyat Malaysia, termasuk Kristian) membawanya ke Mahkamah Rayuan dan ia masih belum selesai. 

3. Selain itu, terdapat juga pelanggaran hak menggunakan kata-kata penting dalam Al-Kitab Bahasa Malaysia. Lihat arahan 5 Disember 1986 daripada Kementerian Hal Ehwal Dalam Negeri menyatakan bahawa, sebagai tambahan kepada 'Allah', kata-kata : Al-Kitab, Firman, Rasul, Iman, Ibadah, Injil, Wahyu, Nabi, Syukur, Solat dan doa adalah tidak boleh digunakan dalam Al-Kitab. Di samping itu, membuat larangan melalui fatwa hanyalah relevan dengan umat Islam sahaja dan tidak terpakai kepada bukan Islam. 

4. Melarang penggunaan kata 'Allah' dan istilah-istilah lain adalah tidak adil. Kristian Bumiputera perlu diberi penghormatan dan kebebasan untuk memanggil Tuhan dalam satu-satunya bahasa yang mereka. Ini adalah penting bagi identiti agama dan budaya mereka.

5. Jika gereja-gereja di Malaysia bersetuju untuk berhenti menggunakan kata 'Allah', bermakna hak untuk mengedit Kitab Suci agama utama dunia telah diberikan kepada sebuah kerajaan sekular. Ini akan menjadi satu perkara memalukan dan kejadian yang belum pernah berlaku pada mana-mana agama dan kerajaan. 

Kesimpulan 

Sesetengah umat Islam mendakwa berulang kali bahawa orang Kristian di Malaysia enggan berhenti menggunakan kata 'Allah' kerana mahu mengelirukan umat Islam dan memurtadkan penganut Islam, sekali gus menimbulkan ancaman kepada keselamatan negara. Tuntutan itu adalah tidak berasas kerana tiada bukti penggunaan kata ini membawa ancaman keselamatan negara. Tuduhan ini kekal sebagai tidak berasas. 

Sebaliknya, keadaan sebegitu dibuat kerana jahil dengan hakikat bahawa apabila orang Kristian menggunakan Al-Kitab, ia adalah khusus untuk umat Kristian berbahasa Malaysia. Gereja-gereja di Malaysia tidak pernah mencadangkan untuk mengubah kata 'Allah' dan 'Lord' kepada 'Allah' dan 'Tuhan', begitu juga bahasabahasa lain dalam Al-Kitab.

DISEDIAKAN OLEH PERSEKUTUAN KRISTIAN MALAYSIA 

(The Christian Federation of Malaysia